Surprise surprise, another Catherine Rayner project! I LOVE the opportunity to introduce watercolor techniques with mixed-media layering for texture. Catherine Rayner does this so well. Especially with her 'Smelly Louie' character. So my 8-14 year old age group had a go at this smelly, whimsy dog. So did my adult class (see earlier blog post for their fab results).
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| Drawing aid: breaking down into basic shapes |
We began with an observational drawing of Louie. All students had a Louie visual at their desk to look at. I helped them along by showing them how to break down Louie into basic shapes. We've done lots of drawing by breaking down into basic shapes, but it's always helpful to show them how I might do this by demonstrating on the white board, and by pointing out important features, like the turned back feet, the slight slump in the upper back, the ascending underbelly..... just keeps things on track! While a few kids needed a bit of assistance, I was AMAZED at how well proportioned their dogs were overall!
We then began painting using wet-on-wet watercolor technique, staring with the background and then moving on to Louie. The objective is that colors should to be transparent (lots of water, little pigment), and should be somewhat neutral and dirty. Many color must be used to create an interesting background. We mixed complementary colors together, and multiple colors together to achieve somewhat earthier tones. Our dog was painted in the same manner, but somewhat darker, and perhaps in somewhat different color combinations, though still see-through. Learning how to use watercolor in light, airy washes is so important. It's what allows us to layer, create depth, and have that beautiful ethereal effect, which is what makes watercolor so beautiful!
We noted where Louie has darker areas (ear, side of legs, underbelly), and lighter areas (the face), and were sure to make these areas a hint darker or lighter accordingly, for emphasis.
This was all we managed on day 1.
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| First coat of wet-on-wet watercolor |
On day 2 we began layering texture on our dog. Louie is super dirty, sticky, grimy and wet, because he's been rolling around in the pond, the dumpster and the mud, so we used multiple mediums, line and colors to make our dog look really scraggly. We used colored pencil, marker, graphite (especially for whiskers), India ink, crayon, chalk pastel and conte. Black watercolor and a fine detail brush was used to add fine dark lines. A fineliner black pen was used to create a subtle nose, eye and mouth.
